Chronicles Of The Babylon Rogues
by SuperShibiron
Summary: The Babylon Rogues find themselves facing off against a brotherhood of villains to save their ancestors' culture and technology. Will they be able to stop this rising brotherhood? What will be the fate of Astral Babylon? [Takes place in an alternative universe based off the Sonic Riders series] [CONTAINS DEVELOPED OCs]
1. Chapter 1: Reaching The Past

**[DISCLAIMER: SEGA** **owns** **the Babylon Rogues and most of the locations in this story. All OCs belong to me and my friends. Enjoy!]**

**Chapter 1: Reaching The Past**

"-I'm never comin' down, I'm high alone! Bred from a genie, with wings and throne! Jetfirehawk, the sky is me! All for speed, I was born to be! Born to be, born to be! ..." Jet The Hawk, a young green hawk and leader of the notorious thieves, the Babylon Rogues, was dancing around with an air guitar, singing the lyrics to his favorite song. He climbed up his fancy, rotating captain's chair, then onto his surprisingly neat work desk, preparing to shout his favorite part of the tune blasting on his stereo.

"CATCH ME, IF YOU CAN! THERE'S NO TURNIN' BACK! REACH BUT NEVER CATCH!" The desk wobbled as he swung himself around with his air guitar, singing along. His voice was a little bit raspy, making everything about the song, seem unpleasant. From all the way down the hall of the Rogues' massive zeppelin, Wave had to deal with the hawk's irritating hollering. She almost broke the tool that she was using to fix up her Extreme Gear, because of it.

Wave The Swallow was the brains and mechanic of the Babylon Rogues. Although she is the second oldest, and the most mature out of the trio, she wonders why she wasn't put as the leader. And even though she does respect Jet, Wave still ends up acting more like a leader than him, and she tells that to both Jet and Storm, what seems like, every day.

At this point, the purple swallow was fed up with Jet's singing. So, she calmly placed her tools on the metal table, got off of her chair, and marched out the door and down the hall to Jet's room. Wave gave a light knock on the door before aggressively breaking in. Jet, which was caught off guard by her entrance, flew back off of his desk and onto the floor with a "SQWAWK!" coming from him. The desk tilted forward a bit but swung back, causing all of the drawers to open, resulting in papers spilling everywhere. The pained hawk peaked over the desk, only to find his other team member furious. He knew that he would be in for a load of nagging.

"Grrr… JET! What did I tell you about blasting your music when I'm trying to work?! While you're here goofing off, I'm actually doing something _productive_ for our team! Jet? JET, ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME? I can't believe you-" and that was all that the green avian really processed. The rest was all some blabbering that probably wasn't as important as the dusty old journal that had landed in front of him after his fall. Jet picked up the hard-covered book carefully, and blew away the dust and dirt from it. _Stolen's Chronicles_, it said on the front. It had a lock on it, but no keyhole to be found. '_Stolen… where have I heard that name before? Stolen, Stolen, Stolen…' _Jet thought to the corner of his eye, he saw a faint blue aura coming from the cabinet on the left wall of the room.

"-and I really don't know _what _I'm gonna do with you, Jet! …Jet? Why is your cabinet glowing?" Wave asked, her words almost fading into silence before she finished. She noticed the book in the hawk's hand, and she took a step forward.

"Stolen… his journal…" was all Jet could say, almost in a monotonous tone. It seemed like he was falling into a trance as he approached the glowing cabinet. As he opened it, the journal began to glow too. He reached in and pulled out a cube-like object from it. _The Key of Babylon_. An object so sacred, so powerful… It helped with the rise of Babylon a couple of years back during the World Grand Prix. Everything about Jet's ancestry lies in the Key.

He held the cube above the book until he heard a "click" noise from the lock. The room was dead silent. Him and Wave both exchanged looks of fright as Jet placed the Key back on the shelf. He hesitated a bit, his hand shaking and the name repeating in his head. '_Stolen, Stolen, Stolen…'_. Jet had chills under his feathers, and so did Wave. Slowly, his eyes widened as he realized.

"Stolen...! The thirteenth leader of the Babylon Rogues...! Wave, _it's Stolen's journal_!" Wave hurried over to the hawk, hiding a bit behind his shoulder. As Jet opened the cover, a paper fell out. It looked ancient, like it was being eaten away by time itself. Wave picked it up and scanned the paper.

"Darn… it's in ancient Babylonian language, and I can't read it! If there was some way that we could decode it, we'd be able to know what was going on during our ancestors' time!" she said, still trying to read it. Wave only knew a couple of words, but that wasn't enough to know what was written. Jet then gasped.

"Storm! Storm knows how to read ancient Babylonian! We'll get him to decode!" Jet closed the book, grabbed the cube from the shelf and looked for his backpack. "We need to go find Storm!"

Wave nodded, noticing Jet taking his infamous Type-J Extreme gear. "He's most likely at the Gigan Rocks' library, as usual." She said as she started to leave the office room. Jet rushed past her and ran down the hall to the cockpit of the zeppelin.

"Good. We'll turn the zep' around and head for the mountains. This is important… This is _knowledge_ about the past Rogue members! We might even find out about your dad's ancestry too, Wave!" Wave frowned. She didn't know much about her parents, specifically her father. All she knew was that they had to leave her at birth due to tension between his family and her mother's. And that upset her a little. But Jet was right; it's their culture. Their _dying _culture. And deep inside, she wanted to know what happened. Jet adjusted himself into the seat of the cockpit, and his inner pilot kicked in. They were heading straight to the Gigan Rocks.


	2. Chapter 2: The Librarian

**Chapter 2: The Librarian**

Chun-Nan is known for its ancient culture and beautiful scenery. The country was but a small village when it first started, and now, it is known as the largest in the world. But deep in the mountainous regions, the culture hadn't spread much there. Instead, another civilization settled in the peaks long the first nation. In the Gigan Rocks, the ancient Babylonians lived in solitude here after they crashed onto Earth. They made temples, inspired by the first Chun-Nan people, thousands of caverns connected under the ground, and the first… _only_ Babylonian library.

For the past few years, only one person lived in the Gigan Rocks. Well, two, counting the Babylon Rogues' strongman, Storm The Albatross. Storm spends most of his time reading up on his ancestors' history while Hirose, the current librarian, watches over him. Hirose is a large barn owl, standing over ten feet tall, and he takes care of not only the books, but the big grey albatross himself. Kind of like a father.

Storm, who has been sitting down in the library for almost the whole day, pulled another archaic book from the shelf, blowing of the years off dust from it. _Structures of Babylon Garden_, in Babylonian language, was engraved in cobalt on the cover. He opened it and began to flip through the pages. Just then, Hirose flew down from the opened center of the library, onto the floor that Storm was on.

"Ah, I see you've decided to read about the history behind certain Babylon structures…?" he asked, tilting his big head slightly. Storm, after quickly flipping through the pages, looked up at the giant owl and sighed.

"Hiro'…? All of these books… they're only about the Babylon history _after_ it's fall! I want to learn about the vast technology and our ancestors; the aliens that build the ships and lived on Babylon Garden…" Storm closed the book and rested it in the towering pile of other texts beside him. He stood up and stretched, then yawned. Unfortunately for his unlucky, clumsy self, his large fists accidentally knocked down the pillar of ancient and fragile books. The sound startled him, and he slowly looked towards Hirose, who didn't budge at all.

"S-Sorry, Hiro'…" he mumbled. The owl let out a sigh that sounded like he was not amused at all. Before he could even say anything, Jet entered the library on his Type-J, with his backpack. He braked as he came close to the two other avians, but almost felt his soul leave his body when he saw Hirose's intimidating physique. Luckily, Wave came in just in time to save the hawk from his fall. The two got off of their gear and approached Storm.

"Storm! You know how to read Babylonian, right? We need you to decode something from Stolen's journal!" Jet handed the paper to Storm, who examined the ancient words on it. He shook his head and gave it back to Jet with a shrug.

"This type of Babylonian writing is called _aevion_… The _really_ ancient Babylonians used that. I only know _bevaion_, the writing that came after the ship crashed! This is way more complex, boss…" he said in a disappointed tone. Both Jet and Wave frowned, but it seemed Jet felt the most saddened. Just then, Hirose took a step forward and extended his long neck down, crouching so that he could be face to face with the hawk. Yet again, Jet was frozen.

"I know the aevion language. I know how to speak and read it. I might be able to decode the text for you." he said, his knowledgeable-sounding yet mysteriously deep voice sending chills down the hawk's spine. He gave the paper to Hirose, and the owl read it clearly. Then he began.

. . . .

_«Whoever finds this journal, you shall be the first one to know the truth about Babylon's demise. My name is Stolen, the thirteenth leader of the Babylon Rogues. Before me, the Babylon Rogues did not have that name. They served as the civil law group on Babylon. The Cevals. But when the rebellion happened, we became the enemies of the Council of Guardians. Aside from leading the civil war, I helped create the Magic Carpet with my comrade, Professor Monsoon. I was the first to own and ride it. Right now, at this very moment, the Babylonian culture… world… is going to end. My journal will tell you all that is happening … And hopefully, prevent this from repeating again.»_

. . . .

Hirose lowered the paper. Jet, Wave and Storm exchanged looks of shock from hearing this. _Could this be…?_, Jet thought. _Everything that I've read… it was all a lie…?_ The hawk pulled out the journal from his backpack and looked hard at the cover. He snapped out of his deep thoughts when Hirose spoke.

"We have a bad reputation of covering up our past… Perhaps reading this journal can very much give you the truth about the Babylonians. I can guarantee that I do not have a single book about a rebellion on Babylon." He said, giving the piece of paper to Storm. He swiftly turned around and began to walk away. "I cannot sit here and read the whole journal to you. In fact, I am sure that you most probably do not have to necessarily _read_ it."

Jet had a confused expression on his face before running after the owl. "Wait! What do you mean, I won't have to read it?" he yelled, his voice echoing through the library. Hirose turned his head slightly, one eye on Jet.

"The key... It has more to it than just opening doors." And with that, he flew up and away back to the top of the library. Jet was still slightly confused until Wave gasped.

"Jet! He was talking about Key of Babylon! You left it back on the ship!" she said, hopping onto her Type-W. Jet grinned and boarded his gear too, Storm following suit. The three dashed out of the library as they made their way back to the zeppelin.

—

Hirose was simply organizing his workspace when he felt a strange shift in temperature in the room. He looked around, but hadn't noticed the silhouette leaned against the wall by the large open window. The owl already knew who it was.

"Did I not tell you to leave, Falkner…?" he said, barely budging. The silhouette came out from the shadows; a lammergeyer with a mixture of inky black and velvet red feathers. A scar rested on his right eye, causing it to always squint, while his other eye was opened normally, blood-red irises glaring at the owl. He gave a chuckle, a chuckle that could very well turn the marrow in one's bone into freezing ice. He ruffled his feathers a bit, giving an untrustworthy grin.

"Lovely seeing you too, Hirose," Falkner walked slowly and quietly across the room, hands behind his back. "You have an absolutely _wonderful_ story-telling voice, did you know that? Hmm, I thank you for letting me hear a bit about my ancestors…"

Hirose tensed up as the vulture reached a shelf with a couple of small, ancient Babylonian artifacts. Falkner reached for what seemed to be a miniature sculpture of the Guardian of Anger, Hariken. He picked it up and held it in his hand; Hirose stayed silent.

"Do you know the story about Hariken, Hirose? He created the Digital Dimension and Angelus… A true hero, he was. He banished all of the rebels… including Stolen. He is the reason for why we are still alive," He kept his eye in the sculpture, twirling it slowly, examining every detail. Hirose watched carefully. "But he was also disliked by the other Guardians… He was… dangerous. Fanatical. And the others…? They were afraid of him."

There was a sudden silence in the room that was almost unsettling. Suddenly, the sculpture in Falkner's hand began to heat up, soon revealing burn marks, and in just a couple of seconds, it started to melt. The clay that was used for the sculpture was now turned into a scorching ball of lava. Falkner enjoyed turning anything into hot magma. It gives him joy… and makes him feel more in control. He then dropped the ball, letting it fall onto the rock floor. It sizzled and burned through the ground on contact. Falkner then walked away, back to the window.

"Hariken is _my_ hero. Maybe I should take a visit to my motherland and learn some more about him… Farewell, Hirose." he cooed menacingly as he climbed out of the window and jumped down. The vulture disappeared after that. Hirose just stood there, taking this moment to realize what he has done.

**End**


	3. Chapter 3: Two Birds With One Stone

**Chapter 3: Two Birds with One Stone**

The Babylon Rogues' zeppelin hovered over the beautiful valley of the Splash Canyon region. While Wave piloted the blimp, Jet and Storm were inside of the office. Jet almost threw the journal out of the window after opening it. The pages were completely blank. Not a single word or picture on it. Storm shook his head and shrugged. "I told ya' that it wasn't worth it, boss..."

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! THAT JERK, STOLEN IS A _BIG_ JERK! HMPF!" Jet yelled as he stomped on the ground in anger. A couple of minutes later, after he calmed down, Wave walked into the room. She noticed that the place looked like it had been hit by a violent tornado, and she sighed. Jet was in the corner, curled up in a ball, Storm beside him.

"I'm guessing that you didn't have any luck with the book..." Jet nodded.

"Hm... Well if it makes you feel any better, I've decided to land in Splash Canyon for a bit. I have a workshop there, so..." she stopped when she saw the hawk nod again. Storm got up from beside him and patted his back. He picked up Stolen's journal and placed it on Jet's desk. "I'm gonna go take a nap. Keep an eye on Jet, will ya'?" Storm left the room.

An hour went by, and the trio finally landed in the canyons. Wave was cleaning up her workshop, and Jet was outside, leaning up against the zeppelin as he waited for Storm. The air outside was fresh with a light breeze, and the sound of many waterfalls and rivers echoed throughout the region. Jet remembered the first time he'd been here. It was years ago, during Dr. Eggman's World Grand Prix. He didn't have the chance to race here, only Wave did. Storm came running out of the blimp with his Type-S gear in his arms. Jet grinned and hopped onto his own gear.

"Yo, Storm! You ready to race?" The hawk said, showing off some of his tricks. Storm pounded on his chest and chuckled, climbing onto his gear too while putting his goggles on.

"Heck yeah, I am! First one to reach the big waterfall up ahead, and come back, wins!" Jet pressed his right heel down on the back of his gear, causing it to charge up its energy for a boost-start.

"One... Two... Three... GO!"

And with that, the two avians were off to a fast start. Jet sped up a bit, moving into the first place as Storm trailed closely behind. Up ahead, the opening of a cave was visible, and that was where they were going to go. Storm boosted forward, almost knocking Jet over. The hawk regained his balance and tried to catch up. Soon, they entered the dark, crystal cavern. Storm had no problem knocking the big pillars of crystals that got in his way, but Jet had more of a problem. He managed to avoid each of them. The birds exited the cave, now both in the same position. The albatross gave a smug grin. Jet rolled his eyes and accelerated, trying to get as much momentum as possible for the jump that was coming up. The two were soon high into the air. Jet never felt more alive in his life. He'd almost forgotten the rush and excitement of racing. The hawk executed a variety of tricks before landing, Storm following suit. They were inches away from each other again. They boosted forward, not noticing another avian cruising peacefully in front of them. Storm skipped to a stop, but Jet wasn't quick enough. Him and the other bird collided with a painful smash. They were both knocked off of their gear. Jet groaned in agony, the impact feeling like a hit from a truck. He was tempted to give the other avian a piece of his mind, but he stopped himself when he noticed Storm helping the vulture up. Jet stumbled a bit, but still managed to stand.

"Are you okay, man? Sorry about that-" The hawk shoved Storm out of the way, cutting his sentence off.

"WHAT THE HECK WE'RE YOU DOING, MAN?! YOU JUST TOTALLY POPPED OUT OF NOWHERE AND ALMOST _KILLED _US!" He grabbed the vulture by his neck, shaking him violently. He gagged and cried for help, Storm coming to the rescue by separating them.

"I-I'm... sorry for bumping... into you.." he said. He looked at Jet with only one eye, as the other looked like it had been clawed, years ago. He fixed his crimson feathers and coughed. "I wasn't expecting there to be people around... I was just cruising around and-... I'm sorry."

Jet felt kind of bad for him, which was quite rare for the hawk. He walked off to get his Type-J from off of the floor, then he glanced over at Storm. "I'm sure Wave has some medical equipment back on the zep. We could bring him there and let him stay for the night..." he said. Storm nodded and helped the vulture get up. He gave a faint smile, but Storm could still see that he was in plenty of pain.

"Thank you for your generosity, you two. My name is... Falkner."


	4. Chapter 4: Steal from the Thief

**Chapter 4: Steal from the Thief **

Jet, Storm and Falkner arrived back at Wave's workshop. The swallow was waiting outside when she noticed the three birds coming towards her. She quickly got up and walked over to them.

"Jet, Storm! What took you guys so long? And who's _that_ guy?" she asked. Jet and Storm brought the injured lammergeier over to a bench, allowing him to sit. They both turned towards her with guilty expressions. Jet decided to speak for the two.

"Err, we kinda had a bit of an... accident? We were racing, and- anyway, this guy needs some patching up!" he said, pointing at Falkner, who was in back of him. Wave gave a confused, squinting expression before shrugging it off. She went into the workshop to grab whatever medical equipment she had. Falkner looked at Jet for a moment, more specifically, his backpack. An ancient book was poking out from it, which caught his attention.

"I'd like to thank you again for, you know, not leaving me back there... But I-I don't think I'll be able to heal fast enough to be on my way..." he said in a saddened tone. Falkner tried to raise himself from the bench, only to collapse from the pain. Luckily, Storm caught him and helped him back up.

"Tch, we're not usually so friendly to others, but... I wouldn't leave a fellow Babylonian crippled in the wild." Jet said. "We have to split by morning, so hopefully Wave patches you up, real good." Falkner nodded and mouthed the words 'thank you' to the hawk. Jet nodded back.

_The sound of metal footsteps echoed through the halls of the citadel. A hawk, carrying a hgih-tech box made his way to Professor Monsoon's office on the top floor. He heard voices speaking in a familiar Babylonian language coming from a room up ahead._

"_-This is not a matter of religion, Alto. If we don't confront the Council about this, then who will? We're going to end up dead! Our Mighty Paragon, they most likely already predicted our fate! We need to-" Suddenly, a loud smack was heard. Then, there was a long moment of silence._

"_We cannot go against the Council, Cirrus. The only ones that have ever even tried to disagree with them were the Cevals. And that was YEARS ago! We'll just have to let things unravel for themselves, my friend." _

_The hawk stepped back from the door, tried to process everything. 'The Cevals? My dad's the leader of the Cevals, but... What were they even talking about..?', he thought to himself. He shook his head, and darted off as he heard the two about to exit the room._

Jet heard noises in his sleep, but tried his best to shrug them off. The sound of the zeppelin's hanger opening was what really made him jolt up from his bed. He stumbled about, trying to flick on the light switches in his room and the hallway. Down the hall, Wave peaked her head out of her room's door, half-awake. Jet shrugged, looking around. Both followed the noises to the hanger, and what they saw had completely woken them up. Falkner, carrying Jet's backpack, waited as the large doors opened to freedom.

"Falkner...? FALKNER!" Jet yelled, charging at the lammergeier. The red avian dodged Jet, causing him to miss and fall to the floor. Falkner slammed his foot on the hawk's arm, _nearly_ breaking it. A loud scream of immense pain came from Jet. The two other Babylon Rogues came bursting into the room, ready to fight Falkner on the spot. He scanned the birds with his only useful eye, then snickered.

"Don't you think my acting skills are phenomenal? It took me only minutes to come up with a skit like that, just to get what I wanted without any real trouble!" He twist his foot a bit and applied more pressure onto Jet's arm, causing him to yelp again. The red lammergeier grinned as a spark of pleasure ignited in his body from seeing the younger avian in pain. He turned to Wave and Storm, who were both frozen from fear, for the first time ever.

"Oh, _come on_! Not even an applause? I think I deserve _some_ kind of reaction from my outstanding work!" Falkner removed his foot, watching Jet roll away, sobbing. He heard the big albatross coming at him just as he was about to leave the scene. Falkner, with movement so smooth and fast, quick-stepped to the side and pummeled Storm right in the back. Storm fell hard, right next to Jet. "STORM!" the young leader yelled as he tried to reach out for him, forgetting the horrible condition of his arm.

Wave rushed over to the two and tried to help them up, giving Falkner the perfect chance to escape. He exited from the hanger's opened door, but as he was about to leave for good, he had an idea. A vicious smirk crept across his cracked beak, turning around to face the zeppelin. He placed the backpack with Stolen's Journal and the Key of Babylon on the ground, then lifted his arms up. He took a couple of relaxing breaths until he felt himself become one with the earth beneath the zep. Suddenly, the ground started to heat up. It got hotter, and hotter, and hotter, until the became soft, like molten lava. Suddenly magma surrounded the blimp, with the Rogues on it. Jet, Wave and Storm were on their feet when they felt the place becoming more heated. "Jet! You and Storm get out of here and I'll grab the gear!" Wave ran to down the hallway, grabbing their boards and any other necessary things. That might've been the biggest mistake that she's ever made.

"Sorry to have to do this. Hmpf, I was just in the _heat of the moment!_" Falkner shouted over the crackling of the flames. He let out a maniacal laugh as he faded into the night. Jet and Storm ran out of the burning zeppelin, and waited outside for Wave. It was going to fall into the pit of lava any second, but there was still no sign of her.

"WAVE! WAAAAAVEE!" Jet sprinted towards it, ignoring his exhaustion and the scorching heat in front of him as the blimp crumbled into a pile of molten metal. Storm chased after him, but only for a moment before Jet gave up, collapsing to the floor. The hawk never cried. Never. Today had been the first day in his life that he'd break out of his usual cocky, bratty self, and finally just... cry. Storm stayed by his side, holding him tightly. _What a night_, he thought to himself.


End file.
